1958 - Elvis Presley begins boot camp in Ft. Hood, Texas, where he insists on doing KP and guard duty just like the other soldiers.
1973 - Shortly after having a hit with Shel Silverstein's "The Cover of the Rolling Stone," Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show were on the cover of Rolling Stone in caricature. It was written as a send-up of rock bands who lose all self awareness when they reach a certain level of success. According to members of the group, they really did buy five copies for their mothers, just like the song said.
1975 - Jeff Beck releases Blow By Blow. Beck's versatile soloing and diverse tones are clearly the album's focus, and he proves to be an adept rhythm player. Blow by Blow is balanced by open-ended jamming and crisp ensemble interaction as it sidesteps the bombast that sank much of the jazz-rock fusion of the period. Blow by Blow signaled a new creative peak for Beck and ranks as one of the premiere recordings in the canon of instrumental rock music.
1978 - After a tumultuous ordeal that lasted nearly two years, Tina Turner is officially divorced from husband Ike. She gets nothing in the settlement except her name; born Anna Mae Bullock, it was Ike who named her "Tina Turner" when they started performing together. But she revived her career with a startling comeback in the early '80s.
1980 - Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of The Moon spends its 303rd week on the US album chart beating the record by Carole King's 1971 long player Tapestry.
2005 - Neil Young has brain surgery to remove an aneurysm. His vision became blurry at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies, and a subsequent checkup discovered the aneurysm.
2019 - Billie Eilish released her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. Eilish largely wrote the album with her brother Finneas O'Connell, who produced it at his small bedroom studio.
With a youthful, hybrid blend that incorporates elements of indie electronic, pop, and hip-hop (assisted by brother Finneas O'Connell), When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? captures the late-2010s zeitgeist by throwing conventional boundaries to the wind and fully committing to its genre-blurring self. While empowering and vulnerable messages bleed through every song, the quieter moments allow her introspection to take the spotlight. Indeed, Through out she demonstrates that she can do it all, hinting at a bright future that could truly go in any direction, as messy and hopeful as youth can get.
Birthdays:
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, better-known as Vangelis, was born today in 1943. One of the most influential figures in the history of electronic music and as a composer of film scores. He first found success as a member of Aphrodite's Child, a psychedelic/progressive rock band active during the late '60s and early '70s releasing the well-regarded full-length 666 in 1972. He achieved international mainstream success for his triumphant theme music to the 1981 film Chariots of Fire and several collaborations with former Yes vocalist Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis. And of course, his groundbreaking score/soundtrack to director Ridley Scott's 1982 dystopian science fiction classic Blade Runner.
Michael Brecker was born on this day in 1949. A remarkable technician and a highly influential tenor saxophonist. While releasing a steady stream of albums since 1977, he credits are long and diverse playing with Bootsy Collins, Eric Clapton, Blue Oyster Cult, Paul Simon, John Lennon, Steely Dan, Parliament, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen and many more.
Perry Farrell is 65. Born Peretz Bernstein in Queens, New York City. His stage name is a play on the word "peripheral," in the sense that he's "on the edge." As the frontman for Jane's Addiction, he had an undeniable charisma and an interest in provocative art (he designed the band's album covers), and leading the band through a hybrid of rock music: metal with strains of punk, folk, and jazz. He also formed Porno For Pyros, and launched the Lollapalooza music festival. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.
John Popper is 57. The harmonica virtuoso and frontman for Blues Traveler. The H.O.R.D.E. (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) tour, was conceived by Popper and band manager Dave Frey and went on to become one of the most successful annual tour packages of the 90s. That's Popper with the harmonica solo on the Dave Matthews Band, "What Would You Say".
R.I.P.:
2016 - Andy Newman from Thunderclap Newman (who had the 1969 No. 1 hit “Something in the Air”) died at age 73. Primarily a keyboard player his schoolfriends nicknamed him Thunderclap in honour of his playing technique. The band that would become Thunderclap Newman was formed in late 1968 at the instigation of the Who’s Pete Townshend, who produced the their lone album, Hollywood Dream.
2020 - Alan Merrill died at age 69. He was the co-writer of, and lead singer on, the first released version of the song “I Love Rock 'n' Roll,” which was recorded by the Arrows in 1975. The song became a breakthrough hit for Joan Jett in 1982.
On This Day In Music History was sourced, curated, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Music This Day, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
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